Electronic devices connected to a network often display data to a user. Customarily, this is done by sending the information to a display device where the data is displayed. This approach works well when the display device is dedicated to a single application/device. Problems arise, however, when multiple devices are forced to share a single display surface.
Currently, there are two main approaches to allowing multiple network devices to share a single display device. In the first approach, multiple network devices share a single display device by partitioning the display surface into separate discrete areas. Each discrete area becomes dedicated to a single device. The result of such an approach is that each device has less available display surface dedicated to the device. For example, in a car, the display surface might be divided to show a gas indicator, a mile per hour indicator, a tachometer, a headlight indicator, and a warning gauge. Splitting the display surface in such a manner reduces the size of the information that is displayed for any device, and a driver viewing the display surface is required to focus harder in order to see any particular item. Another approach is to allow information from a device to overwrite the previous information that is displayed for another device. Thus, for example, information from the cd player indicating a new song is starting overwrites the mile per hour indicator that is already displayed on the display surface. Moreover, a subsequent warning message about the windshield washer fluid being low overwrites the message from the CD player. There is no guarantee that the most important message will be displayed long enough for the user to actually see the message.
Neither of the current approaches described above provides an optimal solution to the problem of multiple networked devices sharing a single display device. Either the messages are inconsistently displayed, or the displayed messages quickly get too small to easily read.